About Jen Noonan

Jen Noonan is a passionate primary and secondary infertility advocate who attempts to destigmatize the shame and guilt surrounding infertility and miscarriage. She is a freelance writer in the greater Metro Denver area. Born and raised in Chicago, she is an honorary Denver native, having called the Mile High city home for more than a decade. She lives with her husband, Patrick, their two sons, and a cat named Lois.
Jen is a Licensed Professional Counselor who holds a Master of Arts Degree in Counseling Psychology and Counseling Education from the University of Colorado Denver. She is an active member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. In Due time is her first book.

Posts by Jen Noonan:

This film eloquently displayed the raw and difficult emotions that people who are going through infertility experience. I am always grateful for those who are willing to put themselves in a vulnerable position so that others will not feel alone.

So what can we do for those who have lost so much? How can we support them? Perhaps we can reach out with an old fashioned card, or even a phone call. We can say “I was thinking of you this week and wanted to check in. I’m here for you.”

Sometimes this can make a world of difference to people who thought they and their earth-shattering loss were forgotten.

IVFML was different than any others I had listened to. For starters, there were two hosts – a husband and a wife (typically podcasts are hosted by women only). The hosts, Simon Ganz and Anna Almendrala, have a great sense of humor, mixed with the ability to be raw and vulnerable. They touched on so many common emotional, physical, and financial aspects of infertility. They had guest speakers who were friends experiencing infertility, a medical doctor, and a therapist. I found myself hanging on every word, and looking forward to finishing the series to see how it ended.

The Walk of Hope recognizes the many ways in which families are built, supports local support services and programs for the 7.3 million women and men living with infertility, and raises public understanding of how the disease of infertility impacts families nationwide.

It can be difficult for those who haven’t been through Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ART) to comprehend all that’s involved. It can also be extremely challenging for those who have been through ART using their own genetics and womb, to understand what it would be like to make the decision to use someone else’s.

In the infertility, childless not by choice, and pregnancy/infant/child loss world, there is a mixture of those who have chosen to publicly speak about their experience and those who have remained anonymous.

What causes someone to speak out and another to withhold? Why do some use their names in real life and others choose to remain anonymous?

It has been five years, yet I can remember it so vividly. I can recall the raw emotions that pierced through every part of my being. Although life has moved on, I still long for what was not meant to be. And it still hurts.

I understood the havoc that infertility wreaks on millions of men, women, and couples, and I was not done after completing my family. I simply couldn’t walk away from the ability to support and empathize with those who continue to experience it.